Found Everywhere
by HecateA
Summary: Helga isn't raising the Heir of Slytherin, she's raising a child—and teaching that little girl to find magic and strength wherever she can, so she can be stronger than the legacy she inherited. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **

**Hogwarts: **Assignment #9, Arts & Crafts #3, Write about someone being overshadowed

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA

* * *

**Wigtown Wanderers, Chaser 2**

**Prompt:** These Rebel Waves — Sara Raasch

**Inspiration from the book used: **One of the reviews on Goodreads mentioned that the magic in this book came from plants and flowers, which screamed _Helga _to me. This line from the synopsis also caught my eye: "what they are willing to become for peace."

**Additional prompts:** [Character] Helga Hufflepuff, [word] Blind, [Object] Map

**Word count: 1949 **

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**Found Everywhere **

_This is the story of your red right ankle_

_And how it came to meet your leg_

_And how the muscle, bone, and sinews tangled_

_And how the skin was softly shed_

_And how it whispered_

_Oh adhere to me_

_For we are bound by symmetry_

_And whatever differences our lives have been_

_We together make a limb_

_This is the story of your red right ankle_

_-Red Right Ankle, _The Decemberists

It was her big girl job to hold the map and Helga smiled to see how tightly her little fingers held it.

"Careful, now," she said, letting go of the little girl's hand. Luckily for both of them, Ana was careful—unusually careful, for a child. This was largely why Helga was comfortable bringing her on expeditions to meadows and trees and harvesting spots that she didn't even bring some of her best students on. Besides; the Forbidden Forest was nowhere near as dangerous as everybody thought. One simply had to know how to move through it, whose territory to avoid, how to stay out of its various inhabitants' ways, and how to leave the Forest as one had found it. It was important to Helga that her daughter learn this and learn it young.

Ana didn't run away when Helga let her go, instead, she tightened her hand around the map and continued to focus on her footing as they made their way through the forest to all the places where Helga knew magical plants could be found. She grew some in the greenhouses, of course, but some things were best kept wild.

"How far away are we?" Ana asked as she skipped from one flat rock to another.

"Not very," Helga promised. "Should we check the map?"

Ana shook her head, sending the braids that Rowena had plaited that morning spinning.

"I trust you, Mama," Ana promised.

Helga couldn't help but smile to herself as she watched Ana skip forwards now that they were back on a path.

"Ana, look," Helga said. "Turn around for a second, there's a little snake on the ground…"

Ana spun around and smiled when she saw the little snake slithering across the path at her mother's feet. When it picked up on the perfect Parseltongue flowing out of her daughter's mouth, it paused. Ana sat on the path, legs crossed, and leaned forwards so she could continue her conversation.

Helga smiled to herself and squeezed her daughter's shoulder before wandering off just off the path to a bush of juniper berries which—judging by their yellowing coloration—may develop potent healing abilities if she dried them properly.

She turned back to check on her daughter, know laying on the path and chatting happily, before kneeling by the plant. She fumbled in her bag for one of the many empty jars she carried for collection purposes.

"Mama can I help?" Ana asked, coming to sit by her.

"Of course," she said. "But we don't want to take too many berries from one tree. Why don't we move onto that bush over there..."

"With the red berries and the prickly thorns?" Ana asked.

"Exactly," Helga said, pushing herself back up and then moving further into the undergrowth. "Those aren't just thorns, they're very good for making Hiccoughing Potion. When we pick these, we have to be careful to twist the stem and then pluck. Does that make sense?"

Ana nodded and then met Helga's eyes.

"Okay, your turn," she said. "Go ahead, darling. Did you have a good conversation with the snake passing by?"

Ana nodded. "I'll go to the library to check after but I think he was an adder."

"Interesting," Helga said. She opened a new jar for her daughter to drop berries in. "Tell me all about them once you read up, okay?"

"Okay," Ana promised. "I wish you had talked to him. He was funny. He told me a joke, but it doesn't make sense in English or Romani, so I don't think I can tell you."

"That's okay. Did it make _you _laugh?" Ana nodded and so Helga smiled and poked her nose. "That's all that matters."

"Uncle Godric says that I can talk to snakes because of my father," Ana said simply, putting more berries in the jar.

"I think Uncle Godric is right," Helga said. "Your father also knew how to speak Parseltongue without ever learning."

Ana nodded and then dropped more berries in the jar. As they hit the bottom, the berries gently vibrated for a second before stilling—a sign that they were fresh and juicy, just like Helga needed them to stock the school's infirmary.

"Do I have other things like him or am I all you?" Ana asked.

"You're all _you, _darling," Helga said. "But sometimes when I don't tell you everything you want to know you give me a look he used to give me—like you're doing right now. You have his eyes too and I think that helps."

Rich, dark, umber brown eyes. Salazar had no freckles, however, those were from Helga—and Ana had them all over her cheeks. One of them was so close to her eye that Helga remembered being fascinated with it when she'd been born. Another was at the corner of her lip and Helga lived to watch it rise with her daughter's smiles.

"One time, Uncle Godric told me that it was his fault that my father left," Ana carried on.

"He said what?" Helga asked, genuinely shocked. She had been very clear with her fellow founders when Ana had come: there would be no talking of Salazar to her until Ana asked and until Ana needed to know, and all of it would go through Helga first.

"Don't be mad," Ana said.

"I'm not mad," Helga promised.

"You're never mad, so even when you're a little mad it shows a lot," Ana explained. "Don't be mad at Uncle Godric, he said that because I thought maybe he had gone because of me."

"Oh," Helga said. Her heart twisted in her chest. "Oh, sweetheart, no he didn't…"

"I know," Ana said. "Uncle Godric told me."

Helga took a deep breath and started picking fruit as well, needing the busy work.

"It wasn't Uncle Godric's fault either," Helga said. "It was a little bit of everybody's fault. Maybe that makes it nobody's fault. I'm not sure, darling. He was angry and he felt alone, and sometimes when you feel alone, you would rather be alone."

"I don't know what that's like," Ana said.

"That's okay," Helga said. _That's good, _she thought to herself.

She twisted the lid back on the jar and put it in her bag.

"Okay, how about you check the map so that we know where to go next?" Helga asked.

Ana nodded and unrolled the scroll in her hand. Helga leaned in closer to help her read the map. Once they had their destination, she took her daughter's dirt and fruit-juice covered hand with her own dirty hand as they moved on to their next harvesting spot.

"Did you ever want to go with him?" Ana said. "With my father?"

Helga chewed on her lip a little bit, hoping her daughter wouldn't notice. That was silly of her; of course she would. She was as observant as she was bright as she was resourceful; blunt as she was caring; sweet as she was clever. She had a little bit of everything, Rowena had once rightfully noted.

"I wanted to stay here," Helga said. "I wanted you to grow up here. I thought you would be safe here. I wanted you to have your aunt and uncle and this family."

"That doesn't mean you didn't want to go with him too," Ana said.

"You're right, darling, it doesn't," Helga said. "Your father was angry because of a fight."

"Uncle Godric said that," Ana said. "He told me I would learn what it was about when I was older and that I shouldn't even ask you to tell me."

"Uncle Godric is right," Helga said with a smile. Her smile didn't last long because of her daughter's next question.

"Were you on his side of the fight?" Ana asked.

"I wasn't," Helga admitted. "That didn't mean I wanted him to go. Or that… that I didn't love him very much. Enough to make you."

"That must take a lot of love," Ana reflected.

Helga's smile crept back. "It did. But when the fight happened and he left, I stayed because I wanted the fighting to stop. I wanted the fighting to stop and I wanted this castle to stay what it was. I had to decide who I wanted to be and what I was ready to do for peace. Peace isn't as easy to find as berries or mushrooms in the woods, or even magic. And at the same time, I thought that was the best way to love you."

"Do you think you were right?" Ana asked her.

"I think you have a home and lots of love," Helga said. "And I think that's all I wanted for you."

She tugged her daughter off the path again, towards a tree with low-hanging fruit that may have been pears—if pears had cleansing properties against some of the most toxic ingredients that her students used in potions' laboratories. It frightened her that in about five years, Ana would be joining the cohorts of young students flowing from classroom to classroom.

She wasn't blind to how her daughter was growing, how clever she was becoming, how so like her father she sometimes was. The good parts, Helga though—and Rowena and Godric agreed. She had known that this conversation was coming, but that didn't mean… well, it didn't mean that Helga had found a good way to explain all of this to her daughter.

"Do you know what the most interesting part of these fruits are, Ana?" Helga asked as they picked the pseudo-pears.

Ana shook her head.

"Muggles eat them all the time without even realizing that they're magic," Helga said. "Because for their magic to work and be true, you have to know what they are and how strong they can be."

Ana nodded.

"Sometimes magic is strange like that and sometimes people are too," Helga said. "You are not your father, Ana. The things that happened between him and me and your aunt and uncle and the world don't change how much we all love each other or you. Your father has a difficult legacy—that means that the way that people will think of him may be… well, hard. They'll call you the Heir of Slytherin because there's a lot to be handed down. But if we're lucky, Ana, you are going to be so extraordinary that nobody will think of me when they think of you, and they won't think of your father, either. It'll just be you."

Ana thought of this and looked at the tree before her. She ran her fingers up its hard, textured bark.

"Is that why you bring me with you when you leave the castle to go harvesting?" Ana said. "So that I don't hear about difficult things?"

"No," Helga said. "I bring you with me because I love these woods and I love you too. I also think it's important for you to learn that there's magic in the trees and in the ground and everywhere, so that you can always find it—no matter what happens next."

Ana nodded and then looked at the map again.

"The next place we can find magic is by the crook with the Grindylows in it," she said.

"Okay," Helga said. She held her hand out to her daughter. "Let's go."

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping War; Fall Bingo; Shadows of Consequence; Cluster of Rainbows; Solemn Husbandry of Exultation

**Individual Challenge(s): **Hola, Bonjour, Jambo; Scaly Tales; Misunderstood; Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Small Fry; Day Out; Seeds; Homeschooled!; Olden Times (Y); Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things B (Innocence); Things & Things D (Jar/Can); Themes & Things E (Dress/Skirt); Ethnic & Present (Y); Tiny Terror; True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; Two Cakes!

**Bonus challenge(s): **Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear; Second Verse (White Dress); Chorus (Forked Path)

**Tertiary bonus challenge: **Sorority

**Word Count: 1949**

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin

**List (Prompt): **Fall Big List (Searching)

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_**Fall Bingo**_

**Space (prompt): **2D (Jar/Can)


End file.
